Day: April 17, 2019

I haven’t used a flashlight during play with Veronika since she was quite little, and today I wanted to put on a little show for her. To be honest, she was more into my hands than their shadowed counterpart on the wall, but either way, she was entertained!

Set your child someplace dim, and shine a flashlight on one wall. First, I gave a simple wave to introduce her to the idea of shadows.

Next, try making animal shapes! A butterfly was fun.

And this was something like a barking dog.

For each shape, you can act out a story, if your little one is captivated.

We then thought it would be fun to show her the shadow of certain toys. Big brother Travis loved helping with this part!

So although she wasn’t as into the shadows as the whole process, Veronika sure enjoyed our show.

Every Easter since Travis was little, I’ve wanted to dye eggs, but didn’t manage to find plastic or wooden ones in time for the holiday. This year, I was prepared! Today, Travis and I tested out three neat methods of dyeing plastic Easter eggs. Did other people know these plastic ones from Paas exist? What a find!

To be honest, none of the following three methods worked that great on the plastic – it was more about the process and the fun than the result. The colors and tricks may work better on real egg shells, if your family is not vegan.

First up was a Marble Finish version. Fill a baking sheet with a generous layer of shaving cream.

Let sit for 10 minutes. Wipe off the excess shaving cream, and you should see a neat marbled color effect.

Of all the methods we tested, this one worked best!

While the eggs sat in the shaving cream, we set up the second attempt: Soap Star eggs.

Fill a small bowl with 2 tablespoons dish soap, 1 teaspoon water, and 10 drops of food coloring. Use a straw to blow bubbles in the solution (they will be big bubbles), then stir quickly until you have smaller bubbles.

Dip an egg into the bubbly water, then let set until the bubbles dry.

Finally, we made Bubble Fun prints! Draw with sharpie marker (or use an ink pad) on bubble wrap.

Wrap around an egg while the ink is still wet, and press firmly. You’ll have dot marks left behind.

As mentioned, all of our results were faint, but I was so glad my little vegan got to join in the Easter egg fun!

I love any meal you can make on only one pan, and this one makes dinner especially exciting, since it’s a breakfast-for-dinner kind of treat, too! You can use vegan breakfast sausage links (such as Field Roast) for the recipe, but I like using the sausage patties from Hilary’s. If using the former, use 6 to 8 links, instead of 4 patties.

Ingredients:

2 cups frozen potato tots

4 vegan breakfast sausage patties

1 red bell pepper, sliced

2 tablespoons olive oil

Black pepper to taste (optional)

Arrange all of the ingredients on a baking sheet, tossing to coat in the olive oil. Bake at 425 degrees F for 25 minutes, stirring about halfway through.